Before We Get Started
 This is a great chapter and in many ways it contains the
heart of this whole course: the dynamics of change and
continuity and the causes and processes involved in
those dynamics.
 Think about caparisons and contrasts regarding
imperialisms impact among world regions and
consider what change occurred within political
institutions and economic realms as a result of
imperialism.
Foundations of Empire
 Imperialism has been a part of world history since the
Mesopotamians, but the inventions and events of the
19th century brought it to a whole new level.
 Motives for Imperialism
 Imperialism – The practice of stronger countries
dominating the politics, culture, and economics of
weaker countries. (Usually economic)
 Economic Benefits
 Political / Military Benefits
 Cultural Justification (Belief in the superiority of white
Christians)
Foundations of Empire
 Tools of Empire
 Industrialization led to powerful new weapons that allowed
Europeans to impose their rule throughout the world.
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Gunpowder
Rifles
Machine Guns
 New modes of transportation allowed easier travel and
administration of imperial realms
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Steamships
Railroads
Canals (Suez and Panama)
 New modes of communication allowed for more efficient
communications throughout imperial empires

Telegraph
European Imperialism
 The 2nd half of the nineteenth century was
characterized by a frenzied round of empire building.
 British in India
 European expansion into central Asia
 Establishment of colonies in southeast Asia
 Mad “scramble for Africa”
 Subjugation of Pacific Ocean Territories
European Imperialism
 The British Empire in India
 British control of India grew out of the mercantile
activities of the British East India Company in the mid
1600s.
 With the demise of the Mughal Empire after 1707 the
British East India Company and eventually the British
government established increasing control in India.
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
1857 Sepoy Rebellion – British Military officers in India
slaughtered by sepoys (Indian soldiers) and local elites
Britain responded by tightening control in India by
establishing direct Imperial rule.
Extended their rule throughout the British subcontinent and
dominated almost all aspects of the Indian government and
economy.
European Imperialism
 Imperialism in Central Asia and Southeast Asia
 Central Asia

By the 1860s Russia had gained control over the caravan cities
of the ancient silk roads and were looking to extend into the
northern frontier of India (The “Great Game” for influence
and intelligence in Central Asia)
 Southeast Asia
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Spanish – Philippines
Dutch – Indonesia
British – Singapore
French – Indochina (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos)
European Imperialism
 The Scramble for Africa
 1875 – European interest in Africa revolved around the
exchange for gold, ivory, and palm oil for European
textiles, guns, and manufactured goods.
 1900 – European powers had partitioned and colonized
almost all the African continent in the “scramble for
Africa.”

Motivated by a quest for resources and nationalistic rivalries.
European Imperialism
 The Scramble for Africa
 Knowledge of the great African rivers allowed Europeans to
access Africa’s interior, which in turn led to rapid colonization
of Africa.
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Belgium – Congo River Basin
Britain – Egypt
Dutch, Germans, and French – South Africa
 Dutch of Cape Town, South Africa known as the Boers or
Afrikaners.
 Boer War (1899-1902) – War between British and Dutch for
control of South Africa.
 Brutal conflict that resulted in the death of thousands of blacks
and whites.
 Boers defeated.
 Union of South Africa, a large, autonomous British dominion
was eventually formed and was made up of Afrikaners as well as
British settlers.
European Imperialism
 The Scramble for Africa
 The Berlin Conference 1884-1885
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
Defining political event in the partition of Africa.
European countries delineated acceptable strategies for
carving the African continent into European colonies
 Only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent of European
control.
 Burdens of Imperialism in Africa
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Many European countries thought that their African colonies
would become self-supporting, but such perceptions were
wrong.
African colonies proved to be expensive and difficult to
maintain.
European Imperialism
 European Imperialism in the Pacific
 Imperialism in the Pacific took two main forms: settler
colonies, as in Australia and New Zealand, and commercial
bases, as on most of the Pacific Islands.
 Australia and New Zealand


Europeans began to settle there in the late 1700s
Impact on the indigenous people was profound
 Pacific Islands
 French – Tahiti
 Britain – Fiji
 Germany – Marshall Islands
 Natives on all islands suffered greatly from European diseases
The Emergence of New Imperial
Powers
 Through much of the nineteenth century imperialism was a
European affair, rapid industrialization and a fear of being
excluded from global influence lead Japan and the U.S. to seek
imperial status.
 U.S. Imperialism in Latin America and the Pacific
 Monroe Doctrine – Established the U.S. as a protectorate of all the
Americas.
 New lands

Alaska (1867), Hawaii (1898), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the
Philippines (1898 Spanish American War)
 Roosevelt Corollary – 1904 became part of the Monroe Doctrine and
stated the U.S. right to intervene in the domestic affairs of nations
within its hemisphere, if those nations were unable to maintain the
security necessary to protect U.S. economic interests.
The Emergence of New Imperial
Powers
 Imperial Japan
 Demands of industrialization and the dissatisfaction at
the treatment by the U.S. and the European powers in
the 1860s pushed Japan to raise its profile in the world.
 Sino-Japanese War (1894) – Japan v. China for control of
Korea. Japan wins and establishes control of Korea,
Taiwan, and other formerly Chinese islands in east Asia.
 Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) – Japan v. Russia for
control of parts of Russian east Asia and Manchuria.

Japan wins.
Legacies of Imperialism
 Empire and Economy
 Globalized economy surged during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries
 Traditional economies in imperialized nations suffered
 Labor Migrations
 Imperial power encouraged mass migration of laborers during
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to exploit the
demand for natural resources and agricultural products.
 Empire and Society
 Movement of workers produced multicultural societies
 Imperialism bread racism
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Scientific Racism – Pseudo scientifically based
Popular Racism – Opinion based
Legacies of Imperialism
 Nationalism and Anticolonial Movements
 The responses of the subjugated peoples to European,
American, and Japanese imperialism was to eventually
breed anti-colonial responses and ultimately nationalist
movements.

India’s response to British imperialism is the most profound
example!